Classic Rock News

An official release date has been announced for The Byrds: 1964-1967, a deluxe photo book focusing on influential rock band The Byrds‘ early years that features contributions from the group’s three surviving original members — Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Chris Hillman.

The 400-page book, which will be published on September 30, features over 500 images taken by such acclaimed photographers as Henry Diltz, Jim Marshall, Linda McCartney and Barry Feinstein, as well as photos from Columbia Records’ archives and the personal archives of the band’s original manager.

The Byrds: 1964-1967 includes commentary from McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman, who share their recollections about the group, which pioneered folk rock, psychedelic rock and country rock.

The project marks the first time that McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman have all worked together since recording a few new songs for The Byrds’ 1990 retrospective box set.

Four versions of the book are available: a standard version, a deluxe limited edition, a super deluxe limited edition and a super deluxe limited edition that comes with a fine-art print.

Copies of the deluxe edition are signed by McGuinn and Hillman, and the super deluxe limited editions are signed by all three surviving Byrds members. The book can be preordered now at ByrdsBook.com.

“I loved being in The Byrds,” says Hillman. “And as crazy as we all were at times, when we were on our game, we soared, we flew high and mighty. I think we all shared a private belief and a strong faith that this was going to work. And it worked so well.”

Adds McGuinn, “Being in The Byrds was a detour to my dream of being a folk singer. It was a very special detour, and one I will always hold close to my heart.”

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A new jam band-theme edition of Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp that will give attendees the once-in-a-lifetime chance to jam with founding Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh is scheduled to take place October 27 to October 30 in New York City.

The Relix Rock Camp event will feature four days of jamming, mentoring sessions, master classes, Q&A events and more, culminating with campers getting to play a concert in front of family and friends at New York venue The Cutting Room.

In addition to getting to jam with Lesh at a private studio, attendees will interact and play with a variety of other talented artists. They include acclaimed jazz guitarist John Scofield, slide-guitar whiz Robert Randolph, one-time Ted Nugent singer/guitarist Derek St. Holmes, Little Feat/ex-Gregg Allman Band guitarist Scott Sharrard, Little Feat drummer Tony Leone and former Hot Tuna guitarist Michael Falzarano.

A variety of packages for the Relix Rock Camp are available, including one that offers campers a full-day session at a recording studio overseen by veteran producer Jesse Lauter.

For full details about Relix Rock Camp and to book a package, visit RockCamp.com.

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Iggy Pop has united with acclaimed composer and former Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman for a new version of the latter’s song “Kick Me.”

The track, which finds the Godfather of Punk spitting lines, including “Kick me/I’m a celebrity,” will appear on Elfman’s upcoming album Bigger. Messier., a “remixed and reimagined” version of his 2021 album, Big Mess.

“I couldn’t be more excited to announce the record with Iggy’s version of ‘Kick Me,’ which not only serves as a reinvention of the song vocally, but instrumentally as well,” Elfman says.

You can listen to the song now via digital outlets.

Bigger. Messier. will be released August 12. It also includes Elfman’s previously released collaborations with Nine Inch Nails‘ Trent Reznor, “True” and “Native Intelligence,” as well as a track with FEVER 333.

(Video contains uncensored profanity) 

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After Dave Grohl wore an ABBA shirt for his surprise appearance during Paul McCartney‘s headlining Glastonbury set over the weekend, the Swedish pop giants’ Benny Andersson is repaying the favor with a Foo Fighters cover.

In a video posted to Instagram, Andersson plays a piano rendition of the classic Foos tune “Learn to Fly.” At the end of the clip, Andersson turns to the camera and smiles to reveal he’s wearing a Foo Fighters shirt.

Grohl is a big ABBA fan and even told the BBC that he “wept like a baby” when he first heard the group’s comeback songs last year.

Beyond the ABBA shout-out, Grohl’s appearance at Glastonbury was significant for being his first public performance since the unexpected death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins in March. Video of Grohl at the festival shows a letter T drawn on his hand, presumably in tribute to Hawkins.

In related news, the band Anyone, which Hawkins played in before he joined Foo Fighters and even before he joined Alanis Morissette‘s live lineup, has released an EP as a tribute to the late drummer. The five-track collection, dubbed The Sylvia Sessions, was recorded in 1993 and is described in a press release as Hawkins’ “earliest recordings.”

Anyone, then called Sylvia, also notably featured future Yes vocalist Jon Davison, who was friends with Hawkins since childhood. Vocalist and guitarist Riz Story is the only remaining member still in the band.

You can listen to The Sylvia Sessions now via digital outlets. The EP is also available as an NFT.

For more info, visit AnyoneDen.net.

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A new signature Cat Stevens acoustic guitar — based on the Gibson J-180 model the British singer/songwriter used to create some of his classic 1970s recordings — has been released by the Gibson Acoustic Custom Shop.

The Gibson Cat Stevens J-180 Collector’s Edition can be purchased now at select instrument dealers around the world and at Gibson.com for the list price of $7,499. Only 50 of the limited-edition guitars have been produced.

The Cat Stevens J-180 guitar features a Sitka spruce top, a star-and-moon design made of mother of pearl on the headstock, star-shaped mother of pearl fretboard inlays and an interior label signed by Stevens, who now is also is known as Yusuf.

The instrument also comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and a selection of collectible Stevens-inspired patches, pins and stickers, as well as a black hardshell case featuring a white cat design.

Stevens purchased his original J-180, a guitar model that had been created for The Everly Brothers, in 1969 at London’s famed Selmer’s Music Shop. He used the guitar extensively on his early 1970s albums Mona Bone Jakon, Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat. Among the memorable tunes he wrote and recorded using his J-180 are “Wild World, “Peace Train” and “Father and Son.”

“I really turned a corner when I got my hands on a black Gibson Everly Brothers J-180,” Yusuf/Stevens explains. “It was my favourite guitar, and it had a very easy action. I played it almost percussively, and that sound gave real character to my recordings. It looked amazing too! Handling the new model is like going back in time to when I first started playing.”

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Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee was finally able to play a full set for the first time on the Stadium Tour.

As previously reported, Lee broke four of his ribs ahead of the tour’s launch earlier this month. Against the reported will of his doctors, Lee decided to still play the tour but only for a few songs each night. Whenever Lee would sub out, he’d be replaced by Ozzy Osbourne drummer Tommy Clufetos.

However, during Tuesday’s concert in Charlotte, Clufetos’ services were not needed. According to Setlist.fm, Lee manned the kit for the entire show.

The Stadium Tour, which marks the Crüe’s first live run together since playing their “farewell” show in 2015, also includes Def Leppard, Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts on the bill, plus opening band Classless Act. It continues Thursday in Nashville.

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Earlier this year, Asia announced that it was organizing a new tour to mark the supergroup’s 40th anniversary that would kick off this summer, but now, plans for the trek have been revised.

The tour, a joint outing with The Alan Parsons Live Project, originally was supposed to have launched in August, but the trek has been delayed because of a medical procedure Alan Parsons underwent recently. The tour is now being rescheduled for early 2023, and new dates will be announced soon.

Asia’s current lineup features two original members, drummer Carl Palmer and keyboardist Geoff Downes, as well as bassist/singer Billy Sherwood and lead vocalist/guitarist Marc Bonilla.

Sherwood joined Asia in 2017 after original lead singer and bassist John Wetton‘s death, while Bonilla was recently welcomed into the band to replace singer/guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, who began playing with the group in 2019.

Bonilla is a former member of late Emerson, Lake & Palmer keyboardist Keith Emerson‘s solo band.

“We were hoping to be out this August, however moving the tour to early next year so we can remain on a co-bill with The Alan Parsons Project will be well worth it,” says Palmer. “I am so thrilled that ASIA has finally been able to return to performing after three years off the road due to the pandemic; we have much to celebrate.”

Adds Downes, “ASIA has been through a lot during these last four decades, but the music has always endured…This tour will be historic.”

In addition to celebrating its 40th anniversary, the band also will be promoting its recently released multi-disc box set, ASIA in Asia — Live at The Budokan, Tokyo, 1983, which focuses on a historic concert the band played in Japan that featured ELP’s Greg Lake stepping in for Wetton.

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Metallica has canceled the band’s headlining performance Wednesday at the Frauenfeld Rocks festival in Switzerland due to a “member of the Metallica family” testing positive for COVID-19.

“We are beyond sorry to disappoint those of you planning to attend the show,” the metal legends write in a statement posted early Wednesday morning. “It was our intention to reschedule a show in Switzerland as soon as possible, however in overnight discussions with the local promoters, sadly it became apparent that schedules and venues do not line up for the remainder of this year or next.”

The festival will still take place as scheduled with sets from Five Finger Death Punch, FEVER 333 and others. With Metallica now out of the lineup, though, organizers are offering ticket holders a partial refund for those who still plan to attend. Ticket holders who decide not to go at all because of the Metallica’s cancellation will receive a full refund.

Metallica’s next scheduled concert is set to place this Friday, July 1, at Belgium’s Rock Werchter festival. Rock Werchter organizers tweeted Wednesday that they’re “in contact” with the Metallica camp, adding that the group is “hopeful to play.”

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Graham Nash‘s latest solo studio album, This Path Tonight, was released over six years ago, but the folk-rock legend says he’s finally almost finished with a follow-up record.

“I think I’m two songs from completing it,” Nash tells ABC Audio. “I’ve got 10. I want to add a couple more. I know what I’m gonna add. So it is almost done.”

Nash, who turned 80 in February, says “the most interesting thing” about the new album is that “it was done completely remotely.”

Explaining how the songs came together, Graham notes, “I have a small, tiny studio in my bathroom in Manhattan. I would put down a song on an acoustic guitar and a vocal track. I would send [the tracks] to [guitarist] Shane [Fontayne] in California. He’d put on the bass, his guitars and a harmony vocal. He would then send all those files to [keyboardist] Todd Caldwell in Brooklyn…who would put on all the keyboards and a harmony vocal. He would then send them…to his brother, [drummer] Toby [Caldwell,] in Lubbock, Texas, who would then put on all the drums.”

Nash adds that the audio files would then be sent back to him and Todd, who is producing the album, and Caldwell “would then make a thing of it.”

Graham reports that the new album is being mixed by Kevin Killen, who also mixed his recent concert album, Graham Nash: Live — Songs for Beginners/Wild Tales.

Meanwhile, Graham is preparing to launch a new U.S. summer tour on July 13 in Red Bank, New Jersey, and he says he plans to include some of the new material in his sets. The trek, which will visit various venue in the Northeast, is mapped out through an August 8 concert in Ocean City, New Jersey.

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An archival Alice Cooper concert album that captures the shock rocker performing at a Dallas record store with the surviving members of his original band will get its official wide global release. Live from the Astroturf will come out on multiple formats September 30.

The album was originally released as a limited-edition vinyl disc. The new release will be available as a colored-vinyl LP packaged with a DVD featuring the 2019 documentary about the reunion performance; a CD/Blu-ray set also featuring the audio and the documentary; and a digital version of the record.

The reunion show took place in 2015 at Good Records in Dallas and featured Cooper joined by guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith from the original Alice Cooper band as well as guitarist Ryan Roxie from Alice’s current touring band, who stepped in after the late Glen Buxton died in 1997.

The performance was a surprise to the attendees, who had gathered at the record shop for a special in-store signing event intended to promote Dunaway’s memoir, Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs!

The concert featured Cooper and company running a selection of songs from the group’s early-1970s albums, including classics like “I’m Eighteen,” “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “Under My Wheels,” “Elected” and “School’s Out.”

The band’s performances of “I’m Eighteen and “Under My Wheels” will be featured on the Live at the Astroturf DVD and Blu-ray in addition to the documentary about the event and a lengthy interview with Dunaway, Bruce and Smith.

Physical versions of Live at the Astroturf can be preordered now at Ear-Music.net.

Here’s the full Live from the Astroturf track list:

“Caught in a Dream”
“Be My Lover”
“I’m Eighteen”
“Is It My Body”
“No More Mr. Nice Guy”
“Under My Wheels”
“School’s Out”
“Elected”
“Desperado” (Instrumental Bonus Track)

DVD/Blu-ray:
–Documentary
–Music Video: “I’m Eighteen”
–Music Video: “Under My Wheels”
–Extensive Interview with Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce and Neal Smith

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